Khawaja Asif faces flak in Pakistan over admission of backing 'dirty work' of terrorism

Social media users in Pakistan have slammed the country’s defence minister after he admitted in an interview that Islamabad has been doing “dirty work” for the West regarding support to terrorists and extremists in the region. His admission came amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack in India, in which 26 people were killed. New Delhi has hinted at Pakistan’s involvement in the massacre, a charge that Islamabad has strongly denied.

To defend Pakistan, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Thursday appeared on Sky News and claimed that the attack could have been “staged” by India.

During an attempt to dodge questions about Pakistan’s long history of fostering terrorism, the Pakistani defence minister dug himself a hole when he blurted out that the cash-strapped nation is doing the “dirty work” for the West. “Well, we have been doing this dirty work for the United States and West, including Britain, for 3 decades," Asif said when asked how the country supported and backed terrorist organisations in the past.

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However, he quickly backtracked on his assertion, insisting that supporting such groups was a mistake. “That was a mistake, and we are suffering from that,” he added, referencing the terror attacks that broke out on its own soil.

Pakistani users, politicians slam Asif for self-goal

After Asif’s self-goal in the TV interview, livid Pakistani users and even opposition leaders took to X to express their frustration, with some accusing the minister of harming their country’s interest.

Dr Shahbaz Gill, a leader of the opposition PTI party, termed Asif’s interview as “idiotic” and a “PR disaster”.

“Khawaja Asif fumbles on Sky News with Yalda Hakim! His idiotic “we did dirty work for US” answer to terror support claims, then lame backpedal, is a PR disaster. He’s clueless—first line’s all people hear!"

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Another PTI leader Hammad Azhar wrote on X that Asif’s “irresponsible statement” has caused great harm to Pakistan.

“It was Khawaja Asif’s irresponsible statement in Moscow during feb 2018 that landed us in the grey list of FATF. The closed discussion on Pakistan was reopened during the FATF session. His latest irresponsible statement has caused great harm to Pakistan again. Khawaja Asif has not legitimately won an election since 2013 but is rigged into parliament by the establishment every time. His sole forte is his crass ability to attack his political opponents with misogynistic comments & classroom quality jibes.”

It was Khawaja Asif’s irresponsible statement in Moscow during feb 2018 that landed us in the grey list of FATF. The closed discussion on Pakistan was reopened during the FATF session.
His latest irresponsible statement has caused great harm to Pakistan again.
Khawaja Asif has…

— Hammad Azhar (@Hammad_Azhar) April 25, 2025

A furious Pakistani user outrightly wrote: “Is he an Indian agent?”

Another user urged Pakistani ministers to refrain from appearing on Western media, arguing there were significant language barriers.

“Pakistani ministers should refrain from appearing on western media because most of the time they can’t say what they actually want to say because of language barriers and they can’t or don’t know the right words(vocabulary) to say what they want to say,” the user wrote.